Diver Down: Real-World SCUBA Accidents and How to Avoid Them

If you already are, or hope to be a certified scuba diver -- or for that matter -- are just a snorkeler, this book could save your life. Michael Ange's Diver Down, Real-World Scuba Accidents How to Avoid Them should be required reading for ALL divers and divers-to-be. No diver among us is so proficient that this book won't make him more aware of the many mishaps that can befall divers in ways beyond our imagination. Take the dive master who ducked under the dive boat in heaving seas to cut heavy tangled monofilament from the boat's propeller. Simple enough, right? Yup, until a flailing hook on that line goes through his hand and he can't cut the wire leader and finds himself minutes away from death because his air is running out. Or what about the 35-year-old women on a shallow water river drift dive who are so exhuberant that they let the currents pull them downstream far from their group with their dive flag and end up under a pontoon boat who's churning propeller could instantly do them in. Or how about the two pro cave divers with a novice on the end of the cave dive line and when they turn the dive he leads them back the way they came but being untrained he gets himself off into a side tunnel because he didn't know what a gapped life line meant, while the others go out only to find him missing....permanently. Ange shows us one fatal or near fatal accident after another and analyzes the often small but fatally critical mistakes divers make. Read these lessons and remember them. They could save you or your dive buddy from serious troubles. I have made over 5,000 dives in my lifetime and know the value of this book. I wrote the book The Cave Divers back in 1976 long before any training program to save divers from killing themselves in caves. Such simple things as taking the wrong lifeline in with them was sufficient to kill them two at a time. Yellow ski ropes as a lifeline we now know are neutral buoyancy and entangle divers at depth in dark caves. Or how about exhaled bubbles scraping sediment off the cave roof and obliterating any hope of seeing one's way out. In those days few knew the causes because victims never survived to tell the tales. Consequently, divers made the same fatal mistakes one after another. Ange does us a much needed service with his analysis of these easily made mistakes. If we don't pay attention to the lessons they teach, we can very easily relive those mistakes and become yet another dive statistic. This book will help you avoid that. Believe me. Robert F. Burgess

PRO: The stories and lessons learned are very good motivators to do things right and not to take unnecessary risks. After reading this book I am no longer going to dive as I am too scared that one of a million things will go wrong at the worst possible time. Diver down reads more like a horror movie of Murphy’s Laws. Great book and worth the money and time spent. I plan to share it with my dive buddy so he too can stop diving and risking his life for the amazing sights of the sea. CON: An otherwise informative and interesting book was totally ruined by the author’s attempts to be politically and social correct. His continuous use of the pronoun “her” instead of “his” or even better “their” is annoying and detracts heavily from the readability of the book. Not all divers are female. Why not say something like: “A diver should route the strap over their right shoulder.” Instead of using “her shoulder” or “his shoulder”, if you want to be socially correct.

Solid selection of stories describing a range of dive fails. At times exciting, at times frightening, and always instructive. Good news for divers is that the accidents were preventable with preparation, staying within limits, and leaving ego on the boat. For the novice diver, the book is a great survey of advancing techniques from recreational open water, to a broad array of technical dives including deep water, cave, commercial and public safety diving. Rather than creating fear of diving, the author leaves the reader confident that through proper incremental training and experience, a vast world of diving opportunities is imminently accessible. Why not 5 stars? I wanted the next story.

I picked up this book before a recent trip to Bonaire where my wife and I spent a week boat diving with groups and shore diving by ourselves. I am a fairly experienced diver with over 150 dives logged in locations including warm and cold water dives all over the world. The primary reason that I decided to read Diver Down is that no matter how many dives one has taken, you can still learn from the experiences and mistakes of others, and any incremental increase of knowledge, no matter how small, makes for safer diving. I appreciated the author's writing style. The stories he includes are engaging and include all of the pertinent details without becoming too drawn-out. Each story provides clear cause and effect for what resulted in the accidents, and all in all I think the lessons settled into the back of my mind. While I think this book might be a little scary for those new to or considering SCUBA diving, it does provide some very valuable insights and lessons.

Every diver MUST read this. It is a real eye opener to what can go wrong and how to avoid it. I could not put it down. It is easy to read, not too technical or boring. I was on the edge of my seat the whole first read. It starts a story and goes to where disaster hits. He talks about what should and should not have happened and what we can all learn. Then, he finishes the story. Some end well and some don't. I learned so much from this book. I think every diver should be required to read this. Diving is a fun and relaxing sport, but it can also be very dangerous if the rules are not respected. I have been diving for seven years and am at the Dive Master level now. I learned great rescue tips and first aid ideas. I plan to read this again and again and get a copy for all my dive friends for Christmas! I can not recommend this book highly enough!

If I had the time i would have read this book in one session. However, I would have re-read it case by case again to pick the points in the dive story where I thought the diver or divers should have acted differently. Sort of a test of my own ability to recognise unsafe practices. After 37 years of diving without incidents I consider this book essential reading for someone with at least an advanced diver rating and certainly a must read for anyone contemplating taking their amateur sport into a professional domain. It is a book for the reading list of dive instructors. The story of a competitive 16 year old, who died, as a result of a deliberate subterfuge for his instructor is at once gripping, and an example of the principle that ultimately we are all responsible for our own life.

This short read is packed with a dozen case studies about real-life scuba accidents. The author has carefully described, analyzed, and dissected these cases, and often giving additional info about the specific context or piece of equipment used in that particular story. At the end of each short story there is a little checkup list - the morale - of the story, that summarizes the mistakes of the protagonists. It's an excellent complement for anyone doing dive rescue courses (which I am currently doing) as it illustrates the concepts in the book with example and concrete use cases. I gave only 4 stars because it's a nice little book to read, but nothing "essential", given that all the rules and knowledge it offers are already included in any decent rescue or advanced diving manual you can find. In short, worth a read for people that want to improve their confidence and skills to be ready when s* hits the fan, but essential read for open water divers and beginners that don't plan to continue education ever and just want to do a few dives per year in sunny Caribbeans.

I think of myself as an experienced (> 400 dives), skilled, and mostly pretty careful scuba diver. This book made me seriously reevaluate my diving practices. It contains a number of accident descriptions with scenarios ranging from novice divers running out of air, divers taking unnecessary risks to poorly maintained equipment causing serious accidents. In some of the accidents, the protagonists survive with a serious scare and some hypothermia, in others they get seriously injured or pay with their lives. The book is written in a clear, sober and non-sensationalist style, but nevertheless the fact that the accidents are described with a focus on the individual human beings involved sent chills down my spine. It is psychologically so much more powerful to read "Jason tried to breathe from his regulator, but his tank was empty. He could not see his buddy." than to read the general advice to regularly monitor your air consumption and stay close to your dive partner. After each accident report, there is a section detailing the lessons learned from the mishap, and often a box adding information about a relevant topic (caves, wrecks, rebreathers, safety devices). The accidents range from absolutely reckless behavior (a teenager attempts a solo bounce dive to 125 ft while his friend distracts the instructor during a safety stop) to cases where seemingly well-prepared divers all of a sudden find themselves in trouble (in a strong current). I found it useful to ask myself after each chapter: Could this happen to me? If yes, what should I change in my diving procedures? When was the last time I checked my safety equipment? Am I sure that I am not pushing the limits in this or that respect? An extremely useful book, both for the actual diving knowledge it contains as well as a reminder how things can go wrong and how catastrophic that can be.

E' formato da una serie di incidenti subacquei con commento su cosa si sarebbe dovuto fare e avrebbe potuto fare. La realtà è però che gli argomenti sono trattati con grande superficialità.

I am not a diver but I do find stories about diving interesting so I throughly enjoyed this book. Each story is long enough to give you the details but short enough that they don’t drag on. There are many lessons in safety and common sense in this book that are not only interesting to non-divers, buy potentially life-saving for drivers of any level.

"Diver Down" certainly provides stories that have the potential to scare the wits out of non-diving friends in their retelling. However, these accounts would not look out of place in "The Darwin Awards". After all, would you drop anchor and then go for a dive in unfamiliar waters without surface cover (i.e. with no crew left aboard) - and with a squall brewing? What is sad is that poor judgement by one person can kill or seriously injure buddies or rescuers. I guess the moral here is to look after 'number one' - in order to avert a daft accident or be in a position to offer assistance to those in difficulty. "Diver Down" tends to describe `sensational' accidents that carry few lessons for the average diver. Most of the accidents described are in overhead situations, i.e. in wrecks or caves. Most accidents to non-technical divers are usually chalked up as down to poor buoyancy control, due to inexperience, panic, or a combination of the two. But recounting these accidents wouldn't make for a very interesting read. To be fair, Michael Ange lists the 'rules' of diving and under #5 states that "panic is the primary cause of diver death". If you want to learn from the mishaps of others then the diving press carries accounts of diving accidents or close calls that are highly educational. One that sticks in the mind is an account of a diver who suffered symptoms of secondary drowning when he was simply making a surface swim and breathed in some sea spray ("Dive" magazine, April 2007). So, if education is what you're after, subscribe to one or more of the excellent diving magazines or online forums. Having said that, the accounts in this book make for compelling reading. It's a real page-turner and I certainly don't regret buying this book. Safe diving.

I am a recently certified diver and I loved this book. Reading the book really drove home the reasons for the safety rules in our sport and the dangers of breaking them. The author relates the stories of these unfortunate incidents in a very readable way and then summarizes the lessons to take away from each one. Each story is quite a brief read in itself, so you can leave this book and come back to it as time allows, but I found it hard to put down. Highly recommended. I am buying other copies for friends.

A must-read book for (recreational) scuba divers who want to expand their diving knowledge and dive safely. Real-life examples of dives that went wrong with a discussion on how accidents could have been avoided (manage your gas, stow the ego, gain experience, don't push your luck, service your equipment, avoid the 'trust-me-buddy cowboys' that will put you at risk, etc.). "The vast majority of accidents are the direct result of diver error. (...) This book's primary goal is to take the process of accident analysis from the technical conferences and back rooms of training agencies and place it in front of everyone with an interest." A recommended book for those that want to minimise the chances of becoming a statistic.